Arbëreshë

The Arbëreshë are an ethnic and linguistic Albanian minority community from the Apulia region of southern Italy, descended from southern Albanian refugees who had fled from the Ottoman Empire between the 15th and 18th centuries. The Arbëreshë practice either Catholicism or Orthodox Christianity, and there are 400,000 Arbëreshë in southern Italy. The Arbëreshë are proud of their Albanian heritage, but they identify as Italian nationals, as they have lived on the peninsula for hundreds of years. Thousands of Arbëreshë people migrated to North America and Latin America, including the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Canada, forming significant communities overseas.